What is it?

Your ecological footprint is the amount of land needed to sustain your life on Earth. If all the land on Earth is divided by the world's population we can get some idea of what our ecological footprint should be.

The figure that has been calculated is 1.8 hectares. By asking ourselves questions about our about our own environmental behaviour we can get some idea of how big our individual ecological footprint is.

New Scientist in Norwich

New Scientist recently brought their Judgement Day event, sponsored by the Tyndall Centre to the University of East Anglia. The purpose being to provoke people into finding out how big their own ecological footprints are.

Did Jeremy Webb, an editor at New Scientist, think that people in Norfolk had bigger ecological footprint than people in other parts of the country?

"My immediate thought would be that they would have bigger footprints and the reason for that is mainly transport. Transport is one of the biggest producers of carbon dioxide," he said.

How big is your ecological footprint?

Do our quick but quirky environmental quiz to find out how environmentally friendly your lifestyle is.

Question 1: Water use

Do you:
a) Shower at least once a day?
b) Have a bath only once or twice a week?
c) Think that people are too obsessive about personal hygiene?

Question 2: Food choices

Do you:
a) Insist on meat with every meal?
b) Eat mostly vegetarian food?
c) Buy only locally-produced organic food food?

Question 3: Electricity

Do you:
a) Always leave computers and TVs on standby?
b) Usually switch off the lights when you leave a room?
c) Use only renewable power sources?

Question 4: Travel

Do you:
a) Usually take the car?
b) Usually take the bus or train?
c) Usually walk or cycle to work or college?

Question 5: Waste

Do you:
a) Never use recycling facilities?
b) Separate paper or glass for recycling?
c) Recycle absolutely everything you can?

find out how big your footprint is >>>
E is also for Ecotech >>>